


The third time

by another_Hero



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Cuddling, M/M, the prompt was "Patrick feels insecure" and I did not quite write the prompt, this is one of those "well canon is corny as hell so I can be too" situations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:18:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22410136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/another_Hero/pseuds/another_Hero
Summary: it's just? cuddling? in the store, prompted by Patrick, which is a lot for David
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Comments: 70
Kudos: 365





	The third time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [samwhambam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/samwhambam/gifts).



They’ve been together three and a half months the first time it happens, and David has too many responses at once, so when Patrick just leans up against him during a lull in business, head tucked under David’s chin, arms blank at his sides, all David does is say, “Oh.” After a moment, he brings one of his hands up Patrick’s back and back down, but the longer this goes on, the longer he wants it to, and he’s just about to bring the other arm tight around him when Patrick pulls away, ducking his head sheepishly, and goes back to unboxing body milk.

David wants to ask about it, but it feels too important; he’s afraid of what he might hear. It keeps him awake that night, though, staring at the mottled motel ceiling. The thing is, it seems like something _he_ would do—something he does all the time, actually, a soft but insistent request for affection. Maybe he should have responded more immediately, responded more. Patrick probably wanted something better than surprise. But it didn’t—he was caught off-guard, okay, he wasn’t prepared to be so important, he wasn’t prepared to be asked for something he desperately wanted to give. It was probably nothing, anyway, just a sweet little—he doesn’t bring it up.

The second time is a bit past five months, and David’s hands know his way around Patrick better than they did, and they come up around him without thought. When he realizes Patrick isn’t reaching, has his arms flat beside him, David doesn’t assume his usual position around Patrick’s neck; he goes full straitjacket instead, firm against his back. Patrick gives this little sigh that David can’t possibly be expected to survive. “You okay?” he tries.

Patrick pulls away, returns to work politely smiling. David coddles him a little the rest of the day: kisses his head as he walks by the register, sweeps the floor without complaining, agrees to watch a sports movie with Ray and pulls _Patrick’s_ head onto _his_ chest. He’s not entirely sure which one of them he’s doing it for.

When it happens again, just a week or two later, David is prepared. Literally: the second time has been weighing on him, not badly but not entirely well, so he’s made a plan of action. And when Patrick falls against him like a rag doll in the middle of store hours, David runs soothing hands up to his shoulder blades and kisses the most convenient bit of his head, firm and long. Then he says, so tenderly he can’t help wincing at his voice, “What’s this?”

Then he kisses Patrick’s head again, which might be playing dirty: it’s definitely a calculated move to make him stay longer. It does work, so. He brings his left hand to the back of Patrick’s head. “Tell me,” he says.

Patrick lets out air fast through his nose like a not-yet-laugh, and he gets just enough space between them to slide his arms up around David’s neck. David doesn’t know how Patrick manages this all the time, the responsibility of being hung onto. He has no idea what to do to make Patrick feel secure; aren’t you supposed to be stable yourself, before you try a trick like that? He figures when Patrick lets go of him and goes back to the probably-a-spreadsheet on his laptop, he’ll make himself an annoyance, but right now he doesn’t want to be an annoyance, he wants to be—nurturing or some other nonsense thing he really doesn’t have the skill for, something Patrick is completely unreasonable in asking him to do, but—he wishes he could. Wishes it enough that he’s going to pretend for as long as he can.

Eventually Patrick disentangles himself, steps back, but he leaves his hands on David’s chest. It’s such a familiar move that David almost scoffs and makes a thing out of whose gesture that is, but he doesn’t want Patrick to stop, and he doesn’t want Patrick to never do it again. “Thank you, David,” he says.

David raises his eyebrows. Patrick has to know that’s not going to count as an explanation.

“I just,” he says, “wanted you to touch me.” He’s looking at David’s collar, he’s going a little pink, his face is so serious David almost can’t look back at it. But David’s not going to miss any of this.

“It makes me feel better.”

David has a debate with himself about whether to ask why Patrick needs to feel better, but the debate resolves itself by going on too long, until Patrick speaks again.

“And this is—sometimes—you do this.” He’s looking anywhere but David’s face. “Kind of.” Ducking his head, the button. “When you want to be touching, you just. Do. So I thought I could, and you would—”

David can’t not do it now. He steps forward; his arms open and then close around Patrick, whose hands stay where they’re trapped against David’s chest. His thumbs stop the tiny circles they were drawing on David’s sweater, which David hopes means he’s calming down. He knows how nervous it can make you to want things.

“Excellent demonstration,” Patrick says, amused. “Thank you,” again. “For the—example.”

David’s gasp for air comes out as a sob, he’s pretty sure. The longer they do this, the more likely they are to be interrupted by a customer. “We should lock the door,” he murmurs, though it comes out with a little less sound and a little more air than he meant it to.

Patrick laughs; David thinks it’s laughing. Patrick shakes against him, anyway, and it’s too much to hold onto in the middle of the day, he needs to bite his ear or make a joke, but _Patrick_ came to _him_. David is—and he thinks it might not be a bad thing, this time, his gratitude doesn’t have the desperation he was used to once—he’s going to stay here as long as he’s wanted.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] The third time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22872658) by [sunlightsymphony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunlightsymphony/pseuds/sunlightsymphony)




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